As explained in the previous post, the topsy turvy footy gaming situation has left me in a limbo, unsure of what to play and when, due to new consoles, release dates, modding availability etc, so it is what is is and as a result, i find myself here, playing a heavily modded PES 21 on the PC, and PES only means one thing, Master League.
Now whether or not this ML will be a test ML, until the October transfers and DP is finalised, or whether it will carry on as my main ML, or maybe even the shallowness of ML in general will be too much to bare, and will only see me through a few weeks before I defect over to FIFA 21, who knows, but, for now, at this moment in time, this is where I am, PES 21, Master League, the Brazilian League.
I chose the Brazilian league as its a league I have never played in before, in any footy game, so will be new, I won’t know the players, or clubs, and the youth players will also be new, no Arcas, or any of the other familiar names.
I also have every Brazilian 1st and 2nd division teams stadiums available thanks to the Ultimate AIO mod that I am running, so new players, new league, new stadium, I’m trying to make what we already know as a boring ML, as fresh as possible.
I chose EC Baiha as my club, I liked their badge, and tried to pick a team that was in the mid to lower end of the ability levels, I also opted for starting with the original club players, not the ML defaults, its a good base to build upon, with some good players, and some not so good players.
The board wanted a top 6 finish, we compromised on a top half finish, I need time to adjust the team mentality, and get them playing the attacking style of football that fans want to see, it was obvious that in order to achieve this, I needed to trim the 35 man squad down, free up some funds, and bring in some better players.
First in was 74 rated CB Christian Vaz, out went 6 or 7 fringe players, bringing in some key funds which allowed me to also sign Wellington, a pacey nimble LWF who can also play AMF or RWF.
So with 2 new key signings made, some crucial funds freed up and a promise of swift attacking football, the season began.
I’m not sure if this is how it works in Brazil, but the opening 2 games of the season were Copa Do Brasil matches, the Brazilian cup, seems odd to kick the season off this way, but I guess the South Americans do it differently.
The opening games were against Sport Recife, who are a very decent side, and with team spirit only starting at 49, was going to be a tough match.
I’ve opted for the default 4-2-3-1 formation, but reserve the right to change this after I have assessed our play a few matches in, playing possession football with tight support and central attacks, defending with front line pressure, with a medium compact line, and have attacking wingbacks, and gegenpress assigned to advance tactics, which i always turn off when starting a match, and apply when necessary.
It indeed was a tough match, losing the away leg 2-0, to two scrappy goals that we should have defended better, all to do in the away leg:
A much better second leg, overturning the deficit, with a 2-0 win to level up on aggregate, extra time didn’t produce any goals, so on to penalties, the first of which you saw at the end of the above clip, using the modded penalty camera view.
Just like AI FK’s are way too overpowered in PES, so are AI penalty saves, the GK saves at least 3 of every 5 you take, no matter how tight to the posts you aim, or how much power you hit it with, they make ridiculous saves, and such was the case here, having 3 penalties saved, to unfortunately crash out of the cup at the first hurdle.
Ironically, the opening league match that followed was vs Recife too, which ended in a 1-1 draw, promising signs that even at this early stage we can compete with better teams.
On a final note, whilst not at the levels they should be, the Holland v3 game play patch that I am using, thanks to a heads up from regular commenter #1, does introduce more fouls, this kind of number, was the average over the next few games, better than the 0 or 1 from before.
The patch also slows game play pace down, makes the AI a little less predictable and more aggressive, they take more long shots etc, I’m liking it so far.
Next week i will touch on the squad, tactics, and a look at the youth academy.
FIFAFX.com 
Really enjoyable reading about a fresh start in a minor league. Glad you didn’t go for one of the big boys. Wellington sounds familiar, but I guess there could be more than one (excluding the Womble who you didn’t buy judging by the picture).
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Chris99 – There are quite a few Wellingtons in Brazil, I think its the equivalent of Smith or Jones or even Mohamed over here.
My Wellington does look a bit like a squashed Vincent Kompany. But he’s a standout performer already.
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Must stop playing exhibition matches and get down to some editing…same every year…
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Werd – you’ll never stop tinkering!!!
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Paul – still with Exeter City, picked up where I left off in the summer.
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Ridiculous isn’t it that there is a much better game than the original with a bit of tinkering by somebody with the know how. As if Konami couldn’t pay them a few quid and say ‘make this better before we release it’ and then all platforms would get the benefit. I guess forums would still argue over things, although in pes’s case not so much anymore.
Breezed through the pre season with Fiorentina – the addition of hulk lifts me to that senior level of physicality. Not sure how I’ll get on with the big clubs when the script kicks in though.
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Good to see you all guys here, since peschronicles disappeared from the web. Not always commenting, but I was an addict reader on the daily basis. Thank god you decided to create your own peace of blog, Paul.
Nice to see Brazilian league, never ever been playing in this country, besides FM career, only there it happened as I love to do kinda globetrotter careers.
As of PES21 – I can’t use mods on PS4, but with the current state of a game I’m more than happy to play it even without. Enjoying even MyShite, it is weirdly satisfying winning against knobheads with playing actual football there.
In ML I am doing Giggs-Rooney reunion by managing Derby with Ryan. Kinda short reunion it’s going to be, as Roo is already on the transfer list :).
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Ah, forgot to add – this year I decided to play FUMA, no matter what. And it’s seriously lovely! Can’t stop playing since the change, it gives me such a nice feel of a real match. 20 minutes game and full manual on Top Player and TV Broadcast camera.
Gonna do exact same thing in FIFA when (if?) I’ll get my hands on it.
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Turf – its always the same every year, with EA and konami, game releases with glaring bugs and omissions that a multi hundred million dollar developer can’t be bothered to playtest, and the community of amatur programmers and graphic designers do the work for them and make the game ten times better.
Abbes – Welcome.
PES21 has had enough of a tweak to make it more playable than 20 ever was, but there are still annoying issues that I’ve raised before, your players just stopping when a player runs past them, the abysmal physicality model, tactics having no effect whatsoever etc, but such is the sitiation that i’m just playing what I can and enjoying what i can, and the mods on PC ver make it more enjoyable in that sense.
Still waiting to hear of the mod situation on PC for FIFA21 before I commit to purchasing any console version.
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Haha, like it Paulo Roberto! Although your tweet just now suggests it is all already going wrong on PES2021….
Lloyd – now in season 15 with Exeter City on FIFA19, we have won everything. Never dreamed I would play the max 15 seasons on career mode
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Abbeyhill – there is a k own bug that causes ML to crash. My ML has started crashing halfway through a match, game just exits to desktop. Same point, same match, every time.
Konami’s fix as advised in game is to manually delete several system files and then start a brand new ML. WTF?!?!?! Are they so incompetent that they think people are happy to waste weeks by restarting all over? Incredible.
I was about to give up PES21 until the October transfers arrive then start a new English ML, but I may have fixed the issue, simply by skipping and simming the match where it crashes, I took a 2-2 draw, and have played a few matches since with no crashes. Not ideal but better than Con-Army’s fix.
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Dude with the glasses and beard in the 2nd screen shot looks like me…copyright Konami?
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Werd – Do you often hang out with Joachim Low and Roy Keane?
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Chris99-only every third Saturday of the month, Jerry Cornelius rocks up if he’s in town
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The bearded guy is Nuno Sanchez, the Wolves manager, a byproduct of the mod im using probably.
Downloaded the FIFA21 10hr trial last night from EA Play, it’s decent, but quite frantic, and the new agile dribbling mechanic is a little unrealistic, using the likes of Mbappe, Neymar, Hazard,Messi, CR7, Salah etc it looks off, its like super high charged, mega fast ultra precise dancing with a ball.
you get an idea here:
I found the more enjoyable matches were with lower skilld teams, played MK Dons vs AFC Wimbledon and the game was slower paced and whilst agile dribbling was still effective, it wasnt as crazy as the clip shows, as players were of lesser stats.
I found the best compromise was to just not use aile dribbling (hold R1 & Move LS) but instead go into settings and turn on the setting for ‘contextual agile dribbling’, this means that depending on the dribbling stats of the player in control, he will automatically incorporate some agile moves into his dribbling contextually, looks much more natural and is less of a ‘cheat’ mechanic.
One thing that did irk me though was the complete lack of any colour in the turfs, all pitches on PS4 are bland, washed out, sage green type affairs with no vibrance at all and totally unrealistic.
I will need to play on PC just to mod this alone, using a Reshader, as on PS4 it looks awful.
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While the house is in chaos I’ve only got the ps2 and only then when I shift the washing machine out of the way. Fired up LMA manager – a 50p curiosity pick up. I remember it being ok but not a serious challenger to championship manager as was. Only played friendlies so far and I’m not seeing an obvious link between tactics and action. The scouting is interesting though – a young aguero a supposedly promising midfielder, the possibility of reuniting shearer and Sutton in my Newcastle side, Torres an athletico kid. Might play a fantasy type season, trying to buy up some of the soon to be greats but it’s really a game that demands more involvement on the field.
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cheers for the initial FIFA21 impressions Paul. I was reading the Eurogamer review where the guy described it as arcadey with pinball passing and an absolute goalfest. Annoyingly this meant he liked it more than FIFA20 owing to the players being more responsive and less sim-like. As you say however the game might still be playable if you focus on the lower leagues
Turf – was surprised when watching Gardeners World at the weekend to see Fish make an appearance. No mention of his best song Grendel but I did like the look of his plot in East Lothian
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Were Fish’s brassicas very kaley, or was he growing any lavender blue?
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